Love Hurts
by StarTattoo
Summary: Tom Fletcher Story; When Pippa suffered some horrific injuries in a collision three years ago she lost all confidence in herself, her body. Now it's up to her boyfriend, Tom, to help her realise how beautiful she really is. Mild sexual references. S/A


He lay out on the sun-bleached lounger, stretched out and soaking up the sun. His skin was lightly bronzed and his hair a light, sandy gold. I allowed my eyes to roam across his figure as he basked in the sun. He was perfect in every way. The only thing that made him better was that he was mine.

Of course, Tom hadn't always been mine. We'd been friends for so long but then one night, many years ago… things got heated. We started arguing and screaming. That was when Tom broke. He told me why he was so angry with me, so frustrated. He confessed how he felt, how he had loved me from the moment we met, seventeen years ago. And I told him that I loved him too. That was the night we first made love. And it had been everything I'd ever imagined it would be.

And now as I watched him, the Adonis that lay in front of me, all those feelings flooded back. I stepped shyly out of the house and into the Bahaman sun and he lifted his head and removed his Ray-Bans. He outstretched his arm and invited me to come sit. But I didn't want to come closer. This was enough for me today. He sat up and surveyed me through the warm brown eyes that I loved so much.

"Pip…" he whispered. "Come to me, please?"

"I can't." I whimpered. "I can't, Tom. It's too bad. I can't."

"Pip… I love you. Nothing can change that. I don't care how you look. I love you for you. I thought that you would be able to see that. That's why I brought you here?"

"Is it?" I asked wearily. "Is that why you brought me here? So I can hide away from the sun underneath the duvet and oversized shirts?!"

"No!" He cried, standing up and walking forward. "Pippa… Pip, every part of you… I love. You think you're repulsive but all I can see is a beautiful woman that I love and I want to spend my life with! If you'd stop being so stubborn and accept my proposal-"

"No!" I cried. "Because every time you get close to me all I want to do is run and hide Tom. I can't stand to let you see my body. I'm hideous. It was sick what happened to me and every time you want to get close to me I just flinch because I'm horrible."

My voice trembled and my shoulders shook as I twisted this crisp white shirt that hung over my body, hiding the spidery white scars across my abdomen and the tops of my thighs.

"Maybe it was a mistake then, ever telling you I loved you." He said, the tears in his eyes making them deeper and browner and even harder to look away from. "Because if this is how you feel about us, if you think that I care about how you look then you don't know anything about me. If you think that all I care about is having a flawless beautiful woman on my arm then you're wrong. And if you think you're anything but flawless, you've obviously never looked in a mirror."

He turned and stepped back out into the sun.

"Do you know how long it's been since you've let me hold you? Or kiss you? Or make love to you? To long, Pip." he whispered, before dropping moodily onto the sun-lounger, where he began to yell.

"WHY DO YOU THINK I EVER ASKED YOU TO MARRY ME?" He cried. I walked forward slowly. Every thing was becoming clear to me now. His eyes were closed in annoyance. I slowly began to unbutton the crisp white shirt that I had pulled from his side of the wardrobe.

"Look at me and tell me you're not repulsed." I whispered. His eyes flickered open and he watched me slip off the shirt and drop it onto the hot patio tiles. His eyes slid down across my meagre figure and I waited quietly for his expression to change. But it didn't.

"Pip… how could you ever think of yourself as anything other than beautiful?" he shook his head, sitting up and taking my hand. He pulled me down and I collapsed astride his hips. I allowed him to run his fingers across my blemished skin and he touched his lips to my shoulder.

I pushed him away with as much force as I could. "Please, Tom." I begged. He forced a smile.

"Sorry… of course. I'll be careful." he muttered. He looked up, I could see the lust in his eyes. I've deprived him of his virility for far too long and he wanted it back, and that one look in his eyes brought back everything I've ever felt for him and reminded me of how I fell for him in the first place.

I tilted his head up to mine and I kissed him for the first time in months. I felt his relief, I felt that longing for his taste that flared up every time his fingers brushed my skin.

He was tentative at first but soon began to respond to the gentle flicking movement of my tongue and he tasted my mouth, his hands moving up to frame my face. Slowly we broke away and he stroked my cheek.

"I love you." I told him.

"I love you too. And the fact that you could call yourself anything other than the beautiful-" his voice broke. "-person you are… it hurts, Pip."

There was something in his voice right then that seemed so convincing…

"Take me to bed, Tom." I whispered. "I know you love me… But I need to feel it."He looked at me, need apparent in his eyes.

"You know I'll wait. For as long as it takes until you feel you're well enough." he breathed. I sniffed and wiped my eyes with shaking hands until he took them both and held them in his own, long, calloused fingers.

"I've been hiding from you for two long." I whispered. "Depriving you for two long." I added with a shaky laugh.

"You know it doesn't matter to me… as long as you still love me."

"Of course I do." I began to dry his wet cheeks and I kissed his lips lightly. Then I stood back and took his hand, beginning to lead him away from the lounger. He touched my cheeks, kissed my lips, traced my scars; all with the same, loving touch that I had so belligerently denied in the past. But now I wanted him to touch me.

He brought me into the bedroom, we walked barefoot across the blonde-wood floor. The sunlight streamed through the six-foot windows and onto the bed, warming the duvet he lay me on. Our lips brushed and our tongues tangled, every move in slow motion as he removed what little clothing I had left.

And with that he saw, for the first time, the full impact the accident had left on my body when my torso had been crushed in the collision. The spider webs marked every cut and tear that had ripped through my flesh and made me bleed, drip onto the icy tarmac.

Tom had been at the hospital within minutes of them notifying him. It didn't matter that he was halfway through a show… he had to be there.

We were together once after the collision but all lights had been turned out, and I refused to look into his eyes as he held me in his arms, moving so gracefully over my body, bowing back and forth, in and out. I heard his sobs that night when he thought I was sleeping and I knew I had crushed and already damaged soul. But it didn't phase me. I was dead inside. I believed I was hideous and unfit for the love that he wanted to give me.

Neither of us had climaxed. It had been awkward getting Tom even in a position to perform. It was never going to be beautiful… but now all that was a distant memory. The love we had for each other had still burned a small spark inside us. All it had taken to ignite was my confession to why I had been so cold, why I never let him touch me.

Now the flames of passion burned underneath our skins as we lay tangled in the sheets. The sweat was pouring and the bed creaked as we moved with such vehemence and fervency. I kissed the skin of his neck and tasted the salty tang of his sweat that wasn't ever unpleasant. It was simply one of the things that made him Tom. The smell of the bed sheet when I could wake up in the morning- soap and cologne with just a hint of that coffee smell that he carried with him. He really was addicted to the stuff. And loved the odd bit of wine. Another thing was the one dimple he sported on his left cheek. And the creases that appeared around his eyes when he smiled too. And in truth? He was all I could ever want, but I was stupid and kept pushing him further and further away from me. And I kept him away from what he'd always wanted.

But now, as I stared into his eyes and saw the love that was now so obvious that I was surprised I'd ever missed it, I had him as close as I could ever want him. We were one, and it was the most amazing thing I've ever felt. It was everything I could ever want it to be.

And the sensation began to build, holding me captive in it's wake. Tom sighed out my name, unable to raise his voice any louder, and I moaned, my back arching as he began to move faster and faster with me.

And without warning, he released. And I groaned and cried out as he brought me to climax. We collapsed on top of the cool bed sheets in the hot sunlight that would slowly begin to peter out. Tom held me close to him and absentmindedly let his fingers trace the marks on my stomach and thighs.

"That day in the hospital? I thought I was going to lose you, you know." he whispered slowly. "And you have no idea how it feels, thinking that the one person who means most to you in your life may not be there in a matter of minutes. They wouldn't even let me hold your hand, you were that critical. They were surprised you came out of it alive, let alone being able to walk."

"I guess I was lucky." I tugged the sheet up over our shoulders.

"More than lucky." He smiled, kissing my forehead. "You're my miracle, Pippa. I love you so much… and… I have something for you."

He turned over a fished in the drawer of the bedside table. He returned with a small black box.

"Pip… I'm only gonna ask one more time… this is it… will you marry me or not?" he asked softly. I looked down, biting my lip and shaking my head.

"There's so many things you want, Tom… so many things that I can never give you. You know I can't give you the family you've always wanted, I'm not going to grow old with you. I've got a decade or two at the most… I can't marry you. I can't break your heart." I said softly.

"You wouldn't be breaking my heart. You'd be making it whole again." he sighed. And with that I nodded and fell back against his chest.

"Yes." I whispered. "I will marry you."

"I love you." he whispered. "And I'll make you happy… for as long as you love me."

"I do… love you." I sighed.

"I do…" he muttered. "That sounds nice."

"It does you know… I do."

"I do." he sighed again.

"I do." I murmured into his neck.

"I do. I do… I do…"And we lay in the wide and inviting bed, murmuring sweet nothings as the sun went down. And even as the sun set and the world was submerged into darkness, the flame of our love burned bright in our hearts.

**A/N; sequel anyone? Well... This is what you get when you listen to Paramore on repeat for six hours... dunno how i write a Tom fic while listening to Paramore but... whatevah!**


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